Music and Art

There is such a link for me between Music and Art - it is almost like you cannot have one without the other.  I have music playing whenever I am awake (as you know I don't turn on my TV) and find there is always some music genre that will suit my mood or my activity.

Painting is no different - I almost need music playing when I paint.

I have always been drawn to faces - especially those weathered ones of older men.  Now that I have begun painting portraits I have been searching out for those types of faces that scream out to me to be painted.

I recently found a great Tuareg elder and I knew I had to paint him.  He is the second face I have painted that is of a nomad; they seem to show great strength in their weather worn faces.

I find if I can play something that suits the theme of the painting then so much the better.

 So what music did I play as I painted - why Billy Thorpe's opus Tangier!!

So with the exotic strains of Marrekesh or Gypsy or A River Knows and naturally Tangier belting out, my Tuareg elder came to life.

I read the story behind the album in July and knew I had to buy it.  It was released at the end of October and I grabbed myself a copy early November..... it is great!!!  If you are interested in the story behind the release check out below.

I love to play Spanish flamenco when I paint also and it is usually when I paint something like a crashing wave - all that guitar work finds a release in my paintbrush I think.

Then, of course, there is opera or tenors or Tibetan chants or native American or Enya or the Stones or Meatloaf or ........ ENOUGH!!!  I think you get the picture ....lol.

Elder son is moving to Queensland in mid January so I now have an empty room - well it was empty for a few hours.

I have moved my painting gear into it (I had taken over my family/dining area) so that leaves my family room a little tidier and gives me a dedicated room just for painting.

Means I can put ideas on the walls or have even more 'gear' laying around and not have to pick it up continually to keep things tidy.

Billy spent his final years obsessed with TANGIER. In early 2007, he was all set to finish it. After seven years of tireless work and refinement, after literally thousands of hours of writing and demo-ing and recording the many multilayered elements that go to the breadth of TANGIER, he was very nearly there.

But then ….. the unfathomable. In the early hours of 28 February 2007, the world lost Billy Thorpe. And time stood still.

In the wake of the national and international mourning that followed, once the shell-shock started to subside, some of Billy’s closest friends and music associates began discussions with his family about the idea of completing TANGIER on Billy’s behalf. Everyone who knew Billy knew that TANGIER meant the world to him.

To leave it incomplete, to not deliver TANGIER to Billy’s lifelong fans and the music world at large would be a travesty, a legacy left unfulfilled.

With this resolve, a conglomerate of family, friends, musicians, music industry heavyweights and a couple of superstars set about piecing together and putting the finishing touches to Billy Thorpe’s almost finished masterpiece.

Some of the guest performers on TANGIER include Mick Fleetwood, Billy Thorpe’s former band mate in the early-’90s LA rock outfit, The Zoo... Egypt’s Tawadros brothers, Venezuelan-born flautist Pedro Eustache, Sydney violinist Richard Tognetti, as well as Australian singers Vanessa Amorosi, Brian Cadd, Connie Mitchell, Ian Moss and Melinda Schneider.

 
Just had an amazing sunset and managed to get a snap of it .

As the saying goes - "red sky at night shepherds' delight, red sky in the morning sailors' take warning..."

 Rotfl - my sister send this photo looking out of my nephew's front door .... talk about the sublime to the ridiculous!!

We have been having 30c plus days and they have been having the opposite.

Hey Jules - how deep is the snow at your front door???? .....lol.
 

Please leave a comment so I know you visited......you know how all bloggers love to read comments!!